The Los Angeles Dodgers withstood an early dominant performance by Gerrit Cole in Game 5 and capitalized on multiple errors by the New York Yankees for a thrilling comeback that earned them their eighth World Series title in franchise history.
The Dodgers went into play Wednesday night confident in Jack Flaherty and a rested group of high-leverage relief pitchers behind him. But Flaherty struggled and failed to make it past the second inning, exiting with the Dodgers trailing 4-0.
That grew to a five-run deficit when Giancarlo Stanton hit a solo home run off Ryan Brasier in the third inning.
Cole had a perfect game until walking Gavin Lux with two outs in the third inning, and held the Dodgers without a hit until Kiké Hernández’s leadoff single in the fifth.
That wound up lighting a spark, albeit one aided by Aaron Judge inexplicably dropping a line drive to put two on with nobody out. An ill-advised throw to third base on a fielder’s choice was another squandered opportunity for the Yankees to convert an easy out.
Cole nearly wiggled out of the bases-loaded jam as he struck out Lux and Shohei Ohtani. The right-handed ace then had a miscue of his own by failing to cover first base on Mookie Betts’ RBI infield single.
Freddie Freeman followed with a base hit that brought in a pair of runners to cut the Dodgers’ deficit to 5-3, and Teoscar Hernández’s two-run double tied the game.
New York did respond the next inning to take a lead, but the Dodgers loaded the bases with nobody out in the eighth and pulled even on Lux’s sacrifice fly. Betts’ sacrifice fly then gave the Dodgers their decided lead.
With the win, the Dodgers also prevented the Yankees from making a bit of their own World Series history. Both in terms of thwarting a series comeback, but also no team in MLB history has so much as forced a Game 6 in the World Series after falling behind 3-0.
Dodgers comeback biggest in World Series history
By erasing a five-run deficit en route to capturing the title, the Dodgers set a new World Series record for biggest comeback in a clinching game.
“After they scored three in the first, every half inning we came in, we were like, ‘Just get one. Chip away, chip away.’ Obviously we didn’t do that the first couple of innings. In this game, when you’re given extra outs, you’ve got to capitalize,” said Freeman, who was voted the Willie Mays World Series MVP.
“That’s what we were able to do in that inning. I know they gave (Anthony) Volpe an error on that play, but if you slow it down and you see how Kiké ran to third base, that’s what set up that play. Him having an unbelievable baserunning IQ there, and just to capitalize.
“You’ve got to get the big hits in the big situations, and we were able to do that in that inning. Once you get it back to even, 5-5, anything can happen.”
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